Author Archives: justifiedandsinner
Accomplished by His Anguish: God Will Forget! A Lenten Sermon on Psalm 25:1-10
My Church’s Building – our goal – to see it restored and filled with people who find healing in Christ Jesus, while helping others heal
Accomplished by His Anguish
God WILL FORGET
Psalm 25:1-10
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ cause you to experience peace beyond all understanding!
- The Paradox of Divine Impossibilities
It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. or was that the Son? Both work!
This is especially true for those that think they have finally proven that God doesn’t exist! Usually, they ask me or just ask the air a philosophical question that cannot be answered, at least in their opinion.
One of the classic questions is this, “If God is all powerful, can He make a rock so big that He can’t lift it?”
Or “if Jesus is God, how could He be born, and die?”
Some hit a little closer home, “how could a good God allow suffering, or evil?
Or the one that comes out of the Psalm today, “If God is all-knowing—how can He “not remember the rebellious sins of my youth?” I mean—He knows everything, so how can He not know all the bad things I did back in 1981? That doesn’t seem to make sense. Either He is all knowing, or if He doesn’t know my sins, He’s not knowing—and that would mean He’s not God, right?
So if God has to be all knowing, how can He answer the prayer to forget the sins of the psalmist’s youth, or more importantly—ours?
- Avoiding Disgrace!
As the psalmist starts this intimate conversation with God he is telling God that he will surrender his life to God—that he completely trusts God! Hear it again,
O LORD, I give my life to you. 2 I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat
The more I read this, the more it sounded like a husband trying to get on the good side of his wife, before buying a new guitar…or a child who broke something, and needs to convince dad to fix it…
God—I’m giving you my life…and I trust you…sooooo…. don’t let me be disgraced! Lord, I’m losing over here don’t let my enemies and adversaries see it!
Doesn’t that mean that the psalmist did something that was—well–Disgraceful? Doesn’t it mean he was losing whatever battle he was in? You don’t ask for something like not being disgraced or letting your enemies see your embarrassing loss, unless well, it was happening!
Just like when the psalmist pleads, “Show me the right path!” I mean, how far does a guy have to go down the wrong road until he asks for directions?
Life is still like that. How badly do we have to screw up before we ask for help? How much guilt or shame has to crush us before we look for help?
How many times will we go through Lent, without dealing with the weight of sin it encourages us to let God deal with?
That Is why, finally, the psalmist cries out the plea for God to no longer remember the sins of his youth!
- He will forget – more than that – the proper path!
The ability of God to forget, to no longer remember our sins, whether of our youth or our old age, is found in the rest of verse 7, and in verse 8.
“Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O LORD. 8 The LORD is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray.”
While God knows everything, He can choose to overlook and forgive our sins. He’s God, He has that ability and power, and in fact, His love, which will never fail, compels Him to do so!
This is what the Psalmist has learned to count on, what He is sure of, what He needs—the love and compassion/mercy of God, who guides men and women who have gone astray.
I love the picture here! God taking us off the road to hell and putting us on a path leading into the presence of God, our Father! He remembers His love for us, and He sees us, broken, disheveled and lost, and moves all that blocks us from Him.
He then picks us up, battered and now healing, and places us on the path, but it doesn’t end there!
- On the Path
Hear again the last two verses, “9 He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way. 10 The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
The idea translated lead here is simply to accompany us on the road, to be more than just a guide, to travel with us. He teaches us, He guides with unfailing love, He is faithful in doing this….
This is the God we need to learn to cry out to more, this is the love of our God which we need to help others see and experience!
This is our God! This is the God who we can entrust our lives to, this is the God we depend upon…
Because this is the God who embraced the agony and anguish of the cross, because of the joy set before Him, He endured it all – for us. AMEN!
The Problem of a Competitive Spirit… it is not heavenly!
Thoughts which draw me to Jesus, and to the Cross…
13 Joshua was near Jericho when he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and asked, “Are you a friend or an enemy?”
14 The man answered, “I am neither. I have come as the commander of the LORD’s army.”
Then Joshua bowed facedown on the ground and asked, “Does my master have a command for me, his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army answered, “Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did. Joshua 5:13-15 NCV
The very word “religion” comes from the Latin “religare” or “religio,” which means “relationship,” or “binding relationship,” or “binding-back relationship.” It is not healthy, holy, or safe to laugh at God’s pole in that relationship, but it is very healthy and even holy to laugh at ourselves. In fact it is unhealthy not to.
Awake! awake, and praise the Lord!
Dismiss your griefs and cares;
A sacred feast He doth afford—
A table here prepares.
Our hungry souls may now be fed,
And taste of heavenly meat;
Christ’s body is our living bread—
His flesh we now may eat.
Whether I like it or not, I am more than a bit competitive! It may not be on a basketball or volleyball court anymore, or in a Tae Kwon Doe dojang, but there is something about engaging with other people with the intent and determination to win that matters to me. I ant to blame the environment, growing up in a sports focused country, where our heroes, once found on battlefields are found in sports stadiums. ( I can argue the competitiveness draws men into and sees them succeed in battle as well.)
These days, competition is found in social media– as people argue about “my” sports teams, or bash “my” political views, or “my” religious views. In the latter two cases, the views don’t even have to be mine – I grieve and want to fight when someone treats either Biden or Trump without respect, or when someone takes a religious leader’s comments out of context or twists them. I see the words, and into battle I go, not interested in discourse as much as showing that I am right. (And by right, do I mean superior?)
Into my world comes Joshua, and the story of his meeting Jesus – the commander of the Lord’s Armies. I so understand Joshua’s comment – “you are on my side, right!?” For if the COmmander is on the other side, then I am in the wrong, and I do not like that! The Commanders reply take Joshua by surprise, and turns Joshua’s world upside down. A lesson I need to learn- and relearn, and apply, and start again.
Peter Kreeft, the great philosopher/apologist, makes the same kind of point with his comments about religion. (Which I lvoed and filed away for those who “hate religion” but love “relationships.”) He reminds me that I need to laugh at myself! That I am the part of the relationship that has the capacity to be in total flux, We get blown about , stressed out, get narcisstic (me?) The grace of God, what Kreeft refers to His pole – is stable, and tied to it through our religion/the relationship we are bound into, keeps us safe, and if we thought about it, dwelling in His peace!
This is where the Luther Hymn finds its meaning, defining a place ofr us, where we know the strength of our being bound to God. It is in the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the place where we meet God, and He shows us His love, as we remember Jesus, broken and His blood poured out–for us. FOR US ALL!
We don’t have to compete at the altar to be the most loved, or to receive the greatest reward, or to even have a spot! Indeed, our desire grows to be to see all at that altar. Our enemy is no longer our adversary, but the demonic that would deny the gospel being shared with someone we will come to love. Imagine the joy found in the broken relationship healing at the altar, and then completely healed before the throne. The one we compete with singing God’s praises next to us, the voices being one. This is heaven, this place at the altar, where we feast with God, together!
That’s a vision that will be so incredibly awesome we will laugh and cry, with joy! May God help us to see it! AMEN!
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 68). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. 1853. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
They Need Jesus, not just words about Jesus! (A Sacramental Discussion)
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross,
10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The LORD knew Moses face to face 11 and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt. 12 Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see. Exodus 34:10-12 NCV
That’s essentially the same joke as the one about the theologian who died and was given the choice by God between going to Heaven or going to a theology lecture about Heaven, and he chose the lecture.
Constricted by our finitude, driven by restlessness, and induced by unfulfilled longings we go about our lives in frantic search of our true home, true love, and true identity. We cling to ideas, people, experiences, relationships, or professional identities that we hoped would fill the gaping hole within us. The cycle of restlessness, reaction, and rapaciousness is the breeding ground of human suffering. The creation narrative exposes this daunting yet redeemable reality.
Yesterday in reading Peter Kreeft’s excellent apologetic treatise, I came across the line in blue above.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a joke unless it bore some resemblance to truth. Unfortunately, I think this vocational risk for academic theologians has infected the clergy and leadership of the church. We hear more about the church, and more about apologetics, and more about the nature of God than we do being introduced to God and interacting with Him. I am as guilty of it as any, but while we should be hearing Him, while we should be know God, as Moses did, face to face, we talk about Him.
And then we wonder why our churches are lifeless, why they are more and more empty, why our lessons and sermons fall on deaf ears, why pastors will spend saturday afternoons surfing the internet to find a sermon that might make a difference! (I’ve seen it, some weeks I will have 400 hits on searches find a sermon from 6 or 9 years ago! I think about Nolasco’s words about the people searching, and I don’t believe they will find that which fills the holes that cause such mental, psychological and spiritual anguish if all we do is tell them about the doctrines of Christ.
They will just move on to try and find some hope, somewhere else. They will find some other substitute to cling too, some other remedy, or more likely, something to deaden the pain.
Our Lord isn’t dead. We don’t have to talk about Him as if He was!
They need to know Him, they need to experience His love! They need to walk with Him on the side of the lake, or through the streets surrounding Union Station in KC (if you read this in the future, there was a gun battle there yesterday) They need to realize His presence in courtrooms, and rehab facilities.
They need to experience their reality redeemed, and reconciled with how God exists in their life.
They need Jesus…and so do you and I.
That is where word and Sacrament ministry – that is the sharing of God’s word in scripture, and the sacraments being the conduits of God’s merciful blessings are all about. The word of God, the gospel that tells you that is was always His plan to be in relationship with us, and detail what that looks like (what is called the law) and ho He creates and restores in (the promises of the gospel) The sacraments bring us into that relationship – that union/unity with Jesus. Each in its own way, not only assuring us of our forgiveness, but welcoming us into the presence of God, That is what baptism, confession and absolution, and the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper promises and delivers!
The chance to experience what Moses did and better, the opportunity to have God dwell in us, and us in God.
This is what matters, this is what our family needs, our churches, our communities, our countries… our world.
Lord, help us draw people to You, where they will find life.
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 57). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Nolasco, Rolf, Jr. 2011. The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Come and See His Glory, EVERYONE! Psalm 50:1-6
Come and See His Glory
EVERYONE!
Psalm 50:1-6
† I.H.S. †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus instill in you a desire to see God, and to help others hear His invitation to them as well!
- The Summoning
The invitation looked a little ostentatious, being gold trimmed and written on the finest of paper. My first reaction was being overwhelmed, not sure if I should believe I got the interview, wondering maybe if Bob was playing a practical joke on me!
But I looked at it a second time – this invitation to a glorious feast, and studied it, and it was real!
And then I realized the invitation, really a summoning was not just to me, or my family. It was for everyone here, and many, many more people.
You heard it this morning, “The LORD, the Mighty One, is God, and he has spoken; he has summoned all humanity from where the sun rises to where it sets.”
I wonder if they will all show in time, on Ash Wednesday? That would be so cool!
Seriously, this summoning is so powerful – to all people, across all time – all humanity from beginning to its eventual end… all called tp God…
- The Way He Comes?
At first glance, being summoned to meet God sounds like being summoned to the Vice-Principal’s office in High School. Or worse, walking down the hall, and hearing the VP call out your name and yell at you to get in the office.
I won’t say if I know this terrifying situation first hand, or not…. But I know quite a few people that did experience it…
Here how the Psalmist describes God coming to meet us where He summons us. (I wish I had a deep booming voice to narrate this with!)
2 From Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines in glorious radiance. 3 Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a great storm rages around him. 4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people.
If Peter, James, and John hit the ground terrified when God the Father spoke to them at Jesus’ transfiguration, what would they do in this scene?
This sounds scary, and for a reason.
Seeing God in all His glory scared the Israelis’ when they were at Mount Sinai. To hear the voice of God not be silent, but to thunder with more of a crash than the loud mic drop ever done at Concordia, or the loudest the organ can play.
Much louder, more terrifying as God says, “come here! NOW!”
Then we see the fire devouring everything, and the great storm blowing and flooding and washing it all away! And as we hear this terrifying description, part of it goes, “they deserve it,!” and the other half recognizes that the “they” includes the we.
We deserve to be cast into the lake of fine, we deserve the wrath of God that is found in a storm beyond anything ever seen.
And so this picture of God coming and calling might scare us, it certainly will scare anyone who rejects God in this life,
As He comes – hear what the Psalmist writes in verse 4 again, “. 4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people.
If it wasn’t for one word in that sentence, it would terrify me….
HIS
- The Judgment – truly Glorious
HIS
“To witness the judgement of HIS people.”
Those three little letters make all the difference in the world.
Though we deserve to be punished for our sin, our Judge is also our advocate, and He will judge us.
The passage even tells us how…
“Bring my faithful people to me— those who made a covenant with me by giving sacrifices.” 6 Then let the heavens proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the judge.
Even before He Judges us, even as He summons us, God is declaring that we trust and depend on Him – that is what it means that wea re faithful in this passage. Not that we are perfect, but that we know He is our only hope to deal with the broken mess sin has made of this world, and of our lives.
This is why Jesus came- to do this! This is what Moses and Elijah, and all the Old Testament pointed to, this point where God would gather His people and declare them faithful.
That is why there is a covenant, based in a sacrifice, that ties us to God. A covenant that says – you will be my people, and I will be your God.
A covenant whose sacrifice happened, not at the temple, but on a cross. Whose broken body and pour out blood we commune with, even as we see bread and wine. This is what we celebrate when we receive the Body and blood—this incredible sacrifice, this incredible blessing, this incredible summoning into the presence of God.
The cross is the guarantee of this judgment of God, that we are judged, not as guilty sinners, but as His beloved children.
No wonder Peter, James and John were told to listen to Jesus!
They didn’t, of course, not until after the resurrection, and for some, the ascension. And even then they had ups and downs. They always returned to the word, and to the sacraments, to remember what Jesus taught them about the Father, and the cross. That’s what the Holy Spirit does – God helping us with the reality we need to know..
That we are HIS. Amen!
How Do We Apply This Bible Passage Today?
Thoughts which drive me to the cross…and therefore to Jesus!
17 Do not be unfair to a foreigner or an orphan. Don’t take a widow’s coat to make sure she pays you back. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the LORD your God saved you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this.
19 When you are gathering your harvest in the field and leave behind a bundle of grain, don’t go back and get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows so that the LORD your God can bless everything you do. 20 When you beat your olive trees to knock the olives off, don’t beat the trees a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don’t pick the vines a second time. Leave what is left for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I am commanding you to do this. Deut. 24:17-22 NCV
One of the great words in our language is, at the same time, one of the emptiest and most debased—the word love. One can hardly speak the word nowadays, it has become so banal, so degraded. And yet, no language can actually dispense with such a word. For if we stopped speaking about love, we would stop speaking about men. We would also stop speaking about God, about him who holds heaven and earth together. In consequence, we find ourselves in a strange situation: we have no choice but to speak of love if we are not to betray God and man, but it is almost impossible to do so because our language has already betrayed love so often. In such a situation, our help must come from without. God speaks to us of love; “Holy Scripture”, which is God’s word cast in human words, raises the word, as it were, out of the dust, purifies it, and restores it to us purified
3 With regard to the time, it is certain that most people in our churches use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord’s Supper, many times a year. Our clergy instruct the people about the worth and fruits of the sacraments in such a way as to invite them to use the sacraments often. On this subject our theologians have written many things which our opponents, if they are but honest, will undoubtedly approve and praise.
Any time I look at the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, I know I have to be careful. Simply put, while the Law of Moses is not binding on those in the New Covenant, that doesn’t mean we can simply disregard it, dismiss it, and say it doesn’t apply to us.
One of the ways to deal with it then, is to look for the “spirit of the Law” rather than just the “letter of the law.” Even then, we face the temptation to make our understanding binding on those around us. You must do this, you must do that! You can’t do this… and oh my gosh – you did that! And we move quickly from talking to a person, to labelling the person “them” and talking about “them” even when they are standing right there. We try and separate from “them” as if breaking our law is somehow worse than blasphemy.
I think a better way is to look at how they Law of Moses would have us love.
Of course, then we get into the problem Pope Benedict XVI (when he was a cardinal) wrote about, the idea that we stripped the meaning of the word love away from it, cheapening it by talking about loving a cheeseburger or an piece of fruit, or confusing it with a thousand other ways that strip from it the dedicated, the devotion, the sacrifice that all goes into loving someone, loving our family, loving our neighbor, loving God.
What Deuteronomy is describing here can be seen as a loving act. Leaving behind for those who have less our excess, heck, it might even be more than our excess–if our work wasn’t focused. But in this world, where most of us don’t farm, but work in places, how are we willing to “leave behind” for others. How do we love like this, without turning it into a law that our minds can qualify and measure?
As I struggled with the passages, and trying to figure out how to not step over the line from doing that which demonstrates love, to either legalism or apathy, I couldn’t work it out. For I believe we need to love our neighbor, and assisting those around us should be done…
As I read the 5 or 6 selections set out for me each day, I often go through these thoughts, and usually 2 or 3, sometimes even 4 all resonate with each other, and I either journal the thoughts, or walk off content. Sometimes is like today though, and I get to the last reading with no clue how it will resolve.
And today it did, as my reading from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession – a theological discourse of the finest nature, provided a simple, pastoral answer to my question of how to apply to my life the lesson from Deuteronomy, and to restore the love of God.
The answer is found in regularly experience the love of God, a love that is found in confessing sins and knowing they are forever forgiven separated from me, and as the Lord Supper, the body and blood of Jesus present in the visible bread and wine, brings me into God’s presence, and He into mine, in a way that is precious and the kind of love that this passage advises – to love without thought, without considering consequence – to just give, and provide for, to show a devotion and love that is beyond expectation.
As we experience this, as we think through it, as we, dare I say it, enjoy it–God does things to us that we don’t see, we instinctively love. as we become more and more like Jesus, as the Spirit transforms us.
This is who we are to be, to share in the glory of God, to reflect it into the world, and the law simply is a description of how we live…
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1992. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl. Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. Feb 10
“The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XII Confession”, Tappert, Theodore G., ed. 1959. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press. p.180
What Good are our Broken Lives? More than you know!
Thoughts which call me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross..
43 “A good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. 44 Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thornbushes, and they don’t get grapes from bushes. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts. Luke 6:43-45 NCV
LORD Jesus Christ, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter my sinful heart; yet, Thou deignest to recognize my great poverty and need. Therefore, I fervently desire Thy presence, to nourish, comfort, and strengthen my poor soul. Speak Thy word to my soul and it shall be well with me. Amen.
‘Remember, man, that thou are dust, and unto dust you shall return. There are implications to be found in this. If man had been fashioned from something that could evaporate, then there would be nothing for him to return to. But a man, even while he is living in the flesh, can return to his constituent element: He does this the moment he is ready to be what God has made him. Dust may not be romantic, but there could be nothing more real..”
When I read the words of Jesus, like those in red above, I feel diseased, depressed, for I look at some of the ways in which I live, and I don’t see good fruit. If I see any fruit it is at best too sour, to overripe, and usually too rotten–if it exists at all. I am not sure I count myself as evil, but if the judgement has too choices, good or evil…. well the preponderance of evidence is not always favorable.
And think about that, guilt and shame builds. I see myself as wretched and as a failure, (Please don’t argue – this is how I and many others feel with such a passage being read or meditated upon. ANd there is hope to come!)
So Loehe’s prayer is simple – and archaic, but the words are encouraging – and often mirror where I eventually come to, the prayer that God doesn’t belong in one such as me–but He doesn’t care what I think and know. He knows me enough to know I needed the cross, I needed HIs presence, and as I encounter it, and the love He has for a sinner like me–oh how I want it even more.
And then comes Zeller and Hanson, reminding me of the blessing of Ash Wednesday – the idea that we can return to the dust we were before our creation, and God can recreate us, by the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. We can exchange that dust and ash for beauty, we become His new masterpiece, we become His…again.
The guilt and shame is removed, and for a moment we glimpse of the God who is ours, whom we are united too in baptism, who we commune with in the Eucharist, who we rise with from death and dust to a new and everlasting life.
Hevenly Father, let us know the weight of our sin, if only for an instant, that we may realize our need for Jesus, and for the healing which You so eagerly work in our lives. We oray this in Jesus name, amen!
Lœhe, William. 1914. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller. Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Hubert con Zeller, “The choice of God”, quoted inJohn Hanson, Coached byJosemaria Escriva, (Scepter,NY, 2024), 54
The Necessary Relationship Between the Bible, Theology and “different” church groups
Thoughts which pull me to Jesus, and to His cross.
Many have tried to report on the things that happened among us. 2 They have written the same things that we learned from others—the people who saw those things from the beginning and served God by telling people his message. 3 Since I myself have studied everything carefully from the beginning, most excellent Theophilus, it seemed good for me to write it out for you. I arranged it in order, 4 to help you know that what you have been taught is true. Luke 1:1-4 NCV
The real meaning of the Church, which is far more than a permutational organization, is growing dim and the question is being raised with increasing urgency: After all, should we not recognize the equality of all denominations? There is a growing tendency to downgrade one’s own denomination and so to locate one’s state as a Christian, not in the Church, but, as it were, behind her. With this is combined a predilection for biblicism, that is, for the isolation of the Bible, which is now valued for itself alone, quite free from all ecclesial traditions.
Most heartily we beseech Thee so to rule and govern Thy Church universal, with all its pastors and ministers, that it may be preserved in the pure doctrine of Thy saving Word, whereby faith toward Thee may be strengthened, and charity increased in us toward all mankind.
There was a time, when I was training up for ministry in college and just after, that I believed that denominations were abhorrently sinful. After all, I belonged to a non-denomination church movement that had some great slogans to encourage this! “No Creed but Christ” was one, another was borrowed from the church fathers, “in essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity (love).” We took great pride in our independence from lesser groups that made a stand over what we considered non-essential! A
A problem developed over the years, in order to be more “missional” the list of things that were essential changed. A movement that once had very strong roles for both baptism and the Lord’s Supper saw churches starting to omit both, to give more room for longer sermons. Ordination went from being something that was prepared for, to something that could happen after a weekend retreat.
Eventually, after my own ordination, and serving a church, I ended up moving into a different brotherhood of churches, because I realized my theology had changed as I studied the scriptures. It was not a simple or easy change–but one that took over 5 years–including three years returning to school. Lost a few friends over it, confused many more.
Why was it important? Why not just continue to teach about Jesus where I was – were people cared about me? WHy not just work directly from the Bible, and not care about the differences.
In my devotional reading from Luke this week, I see a part of the answer. I am not an apostle, nor are these posts of mine–or my sermons equal to scripture. But, like Luke, there is a reason for them–to help you know Jesus. That is why the research I do exists, why I spend time struggling with the passages or a verse, so that those reading or listening can know Jesus, and be assured of the promises He makes to them and fulfills in them.
To understand our relationship with God we need to understand scripture–for that is how God reveals Himself to us. That is theology, and often that theology or how it is put into practice is the difference between denominations/brotherhoods, movements. So there should be individually and corporately, a desire to maintain the core beliefs that bring comfort and peace, for we know that God is faithful to those promises.
Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year, ed. Irene Grassl, trans. Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 32.
William Lœhe, Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians, trans. H. A. Weller (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1914), 136.
The Art of Listening to a Sermon/Homily/Bible Lesson
Thoughts which draw us to Jesus, and to His cross
45 I will live in perfect freedom, because I try to obey your teachings.
73 You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. 74 May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:45, 73-74 (NLT2)
Though I hear but a human being preach, even as I am human, yet do Thou so rule and govern my mind that I may regard him as the servant of Christ, and hear him as a messenger in God’s stead, for by him Thou instructest me. Therefore, make me to have desire to the word which falls from his lips, and though all that he says may not please me, let me be mindful of other hearers beside me, who may find which I least regard, as most necessary and beneficial to themselves. Meanwhile do Thou Thyself speak within my soul when he speaks to my ears. Cause my heart to burn within me like the hearts of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. Open my heart as Thou once didst open the heart of Lydia, the seller of purple, that I may give heed to what is said unto me. Grant me such measure of grace that I may rightly judge and divide all that Thy servant says: the words of the text which he explains, the doctrine which he draws therefrom, the truth which he thereby shows forth, the errors which he therewith opposes, my own self-examination which he may provoke therein, the sins which he condemns, the good which he commends, the instruction unto godliness which he gives, and the comfort which we may receive against every care of this miserable life. Grant, O God, that I may hear all this with diligence, receive it with joy, understand it rightly, consider it carefully, know Thy will therefrom, feel the power of Thy Word within me, and so, become ever more perfect and ready unto all good works.
In summary, buried beneath our exterior self is a seed of contemplation waiting to grow and flourish. The seed of contemplation within us is a function of God’s deep desire to be in communion with us. Our open and receptive response to this gentle and sweet invitation transforms our life in all ways.
As I read Loehe’s words, a prayer he recorded about preparing to hear a sermon, I thought of how much time we in preparing sermons, from learning how to study scripture, to learning how to write and deliver that sermon. 36 units just in preaching classes, if I include Theology and Bible courses, add another 60-80 units. Not to mention books read, and sometimes reread 16-20 hours a week – 48-50 weeks a year, not talking midweek services! A lot of polishing of student sermons and deacon sermons along the way as well.
And I never gave much thought to how I prepare my people to hear a sermon.
I guess I didn’t consider it the same as medidating on the word of God, which Loehe develops the thought of in the prayer. I know we are proclaiming Christ, and Him cricified as the hope, yet how do we listen, and dwell and let it sing in, as Loehe suggests? is hearing the word proclaimed a form of the mediation that Nolasco desire should flourish? It certainly includes the message of God’s deep desire to be in communion, intimate communion with us!
That is all Psalm 119 is really about – this deep meditation on the word of God – deep as engaging heart and soul as well as mind–the word and the word- enfleshed sacraments causing us to be drawn more consciously into the presence of God, where we dwell.
This is how the word heals, as it is communicated through the lips of broken men like me, and takes up residence in those that hear it.
Oddly enough – that is how our Lord chose to make this work….
May our common meditation reveal the Lord, our Rock, our Savior.
AMEN!
William Lœhe, Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians, trans. H. A. Weller (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1914), 126–128.
Rolf Nolasco Jr., The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2011), 51.
A Rant Against Injustice
Thoughts which draw me to Jesus, and to His cross..
15 If you put these people to death all at once, the nations who have heard about your power will say, 16 ‘The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he promised them. So he killed them in the desert.’
17 “So show your strength now, Lord. Do what you said: 18 ‘The LORD doesn’t become angry quickly, but he has great love. He forgives sin and law breaking. But the LORD never forgets to punish guilty people. When parents sin, he will also punish their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and their great-great-grandchildren.’ 19 By your great love, forgive these people’s sin, just as you have forgiven them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
20 The LORD answered, “I have forgiven them as you asked. Numbers 14:15-20
We condemn this wicked idea about works. First, it obscures the glory of Christ when men offer these works to God as a price and propitiation, thus giving our works an honor that belongs only to Christ. Secondly, they still do not find peace of conscience in these works, but in real terror they pile up works and ultimately despair because they cannot find works pure enough. The law always accuses them and brings forth wrath. Thirdly, such people never attain the knowledge of God, for in their anger they flee his judgment and never believe that he hears them.
Shortly after being tortured she was transferred to another cell, where she found a tattered Bible. She opened it, and the first thing she saw was a picture of a man prostrate under lightning, thunder and hail. Immediately she identified herself with this man, saw herself in him. Then she looked further and saw in the upper part of the picture a mighty hand, the hand of God, and the text from the eighth chapter of the Letter to the Romans, a text that comes straight from the center of Resurrection-faith: “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” (8:39). And whereas at first it was the bottom half of the picture which she experienced, her being invaded by all that was terrible, crushing her like a helpless worm, she gradually came to experience more and more the other part of the picture, the powerful hand and the “Nothing can separate us”. At first she still prayed, “Lord, let me out of here”, but this interior shaking of the prison bars turned more and more into that truly free composure which prays, with Jesus Christ: “Not my will, but thine, be done.”
Injustice, some would say, is in the eyes of the oppressed. They get to consider what is just, and what is not, or at least a neutral court does. And if the court decides there is more oppression the the judgment isn’t right, the cries of injustice increase, and protests and even civil wars erupt.
I cannot find that sort of reaction in the writing of then Cardinal Ratzinger. I think if you asked the lady tortured about injustice, or it’s pseudonym–unrighteousness–you would get a far different attitude. For she found justice, real justice, in the pages of scripture and the etchings in that Bible. (I wonder if it was a Lutheran Bible – and the picture being of Luther’s desperate plea for God to save him.) The justice she found was so satisfying, that she could leave her situation in the arms of God, and welcome His actions, or inactions.
I envy her spiritual maturity….as I deal with my own challenges.
She encountered the love of God that would not let her go… and it didn’t.
And as she grew to depend on Him, His declaration of her righteousness took hold, and she knew peace in the despair.
That is why Melanchthon and Luther and the group around them so fought that injustice could only be defeated by Christ. That His forgiveness was not dependent on my, or the extreme measures I could take to stop sinning, and pay for those I’ve committed. (nor pawn them off on my descendants and friends – who have their own to deal with!) There is nothing I can do to fight injustice in war-torn regions of the world, but pray and try to help them see Jesus’ power to deal with their own sins, and then, they can see the sins of their “oppressors” dealt with as well.
THis is so clear in the passage from Numbers – Israel’s injustice had to be dealt with. They were rejecting God, they were looking to their own wisdom, they were dismissing His care for them. But God, in His mercy, hears the cry of Moses, and forgives them as promised. Why? Because they were His.
As was the lady imprisoned,
As were you and I…
“Apology of the Augsburg Confession: Article IV, 204” Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 135.
Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year, ed. Irene Grassl, trans. Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 25–26.
The Only Way to Start the Year….
Thoughts which bring me to Jesus, and to The Cross
The LORD said to Moses, 27 “The Day of Cleansing will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. There will be a holy meeting, and you will deny yourselves and bring an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28 Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Cleansing. On that day the priests will go before the LORD and perform the acts to make you clean from sin so you will belong to the LORD.
29 “Anyone who refuses to give up food on this day must be cut off from the people. 30 If anyone works on this day, I will destroy that person from among the people. 31 You must not do any work at all; this law will continue for people from now on wherever you live. 32 It will be a special day of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. Lev 23:26-32 NCV
Happy is the person whom the LORD does not consider guilty and in whom there is nothing false. 3 When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. 4 Day and night you punished me. My strength was gone as in the summer heat.
Selah
5 Then I confessed my sins to you and didn’t hide my guilt. I said, “I will confess my sins to the LORD,” and you forgave my guilt. Ps. 32:2-5 NCV
36 Finally, it was very foolish of our opponents to write that men who are under eternal wrath merit the forgiveness of sins by an elicited act of love, since it is impossible to love God unless faith has first accepted the forgiveness of sins.
All that exterior activity is a waste if tune, if you lack love. It’s like sewing with a needle and no thread.
What a pity if in the end you had carried out “your” apostolate (mission) and not “His” apostolate.
Every three or four years, I choose a translation to read through that was designed for younger or simpler readers. What benefit usually comes is when familiar “church” words are replaced with words that describe what is actually going on. In this case, the “Day of Atonement” is replaced with the “Day of Cleansing.” The day when all sin is erased, a day of great joy, a day that means, in the truest sense of the word–freedom.
In that moment, in the Mosaic period of the Covenant, all the people of God (Israel AND the foreigners that dwelled with them) could rejoice. Every sin, every bit of its buddies shame and guilt was removed from the people. It was a special day of rest, not because of the hard work prior to it, but because of the great blessing of God’s mercy.
It was, and is today, a life changer. And it should be prepared for with eagerness, for great joy awaits. And then, it should be followed with restful, joyous contemplation, for the weight that has been removed is beyond description.
The cost and consequence of all sin, the incredible burden of shame, the crushing power of guilt…is gone.
And we are free to love–and that love gives meaning and depth to everything we do. And it is good to take an hour, a day, a week, even a year, contemplating our forgiveness, found in our relationship with Jesus.
In these days, in the New Covenant, we have to be careful not to dismiss the “Day of Cleansing.” It is not a yearly occurrence, but one that happens as the people of God gather. as they minister to each other, and when the pastor/priest tells people. “you are forgiven in Jesus’ name.”
If we are to begin a new year correctly, it needs to start with that cleansing and rest. It needs to start with love, and that love requires the freedom that cleansing/absolution/mercy brings to the table.
So find times to think about what you’ve done, how God has healed the brokenness, and how you are made whole. DO this often, and see what God has freed you to do, next.
Godspeed, and God’s peace
Phillip Melanchthon, “The APology of the Augsburg COnfession: Article IV Justification'” Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord: the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 112.
Josemaria Escriva, The Way. no. 967
